Rich McKeown

Rich McKeown is the Chairman of the Leavitt Partners Board of Directors. He co-founded Leavitt Partners and served as the firm’s first CEO from 2009 – April 2017.

In previous roles he served as chief of staff for Mike Leavitt at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). At HHS, he directed and coordinated the activities of the largest department in the federal government, serving as the Secretary’s day-to-day manager for a department that employed 67,000 people and had an annual budget in excess of $840 billion. He also led the negotiations between China and the FDA regarding Drug, Device and Food issues which led to landmark agreements in 2008 and paved the way for the placement of US-FDA offices around the world. From November 2003 until January 2005, Rich served as senior counselor and chief of staff to Administrator Leavitt at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Rich co-authored with Mike Leavitt the highly-acclaimed book titled Finding Allies, Building Alliances.

Prior to his public service in Washington, D.C., Rich served as chief of staff to Governor Mike Leavitt and as commissioner of the Utah State Tax Commission. His background is as a private practice lawyer and educator. Rich received his juris doctorate from the University of Utah and bachelor’s degree from Ohio University.